Price 10 Cents 

JUDGE 

ALTON B. PARKER 



His Social 

Political and Judicial 

Relations to 

Race Track Gamblers and 
Gambling Trust 

IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

By OAKLEY SELLECK 

56 West 93d Street, NEW YORK 



MANAGERS and MANIPULATORS 
of JUDGE PARKER 

David B. Hill, "Peanut Politician" 

— The Public Press. 

William F. Sheehan, " An Unconscionable 
Political Blackleg" 

— N. V. Times, a Parker Organ. 

August Belmont, Head of the Race- 

Track Gambling Trust 

De Lancy Nicoll, Attorney for the Pool- 
Sellers and Bookmakers at the Race- 
Tracks 

Patrick McCarren, Ward Politician. 

Race-Horse Owner and Race-Track 
Gambler 

STATESMEN, EVERY ONE OF THEM 

" Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." 

Copyrighted by Oakley Selleck, 1904 



£'6 6 



Tw> 0oo»«» Received 
SEP 14 1904 
-OooydeM Entry 

CLASS CU XXo. No. 

7 c«py b 



EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW 

Pljp^S the Life Blood of Liberty and 
|5j|S\ the Keystone that locks the gi- 
Eslt/ gantic arch of States that form 
the Republic. Equality Before the 
Law is the vital living principle of 
our government and it means that you 
and I may legally do exactly what any 
other person or persons may legally do 
and not an atom more. A just govern- 
ment can go no further than this. Be- 
fore the Law is where Equality begins 
and ends, so far as governmental inter- 
ference may go. Whenever the law 
steps in it must Touch Us All Even- 
ly and Alike. When invoked for pur- 
poses beyond the limitations of Equal- 
ity it becomes Tyranny and Oppres- 
sion. 

THIS IS TRUE 



Copyrighted, 1904, by Oakley Selleck 




Judge Alton B. Parker 

His Social, Political and Judicial Relations to the Race- 
Track Gamblers and Gamblifig Trust in 
the State of Neio York. 

HE title of this booklet would 
indicate that Judge Parker is 
charged with being associated 
with, and possibly influenced by 
the race-track gamblers and the gam- 
bling trust in the State of New York. 
If you will read it through carefully, 
your opinion as to his relations to, and 
interest in them, is as good as that of 
any other person. The statements here- 
in made are matters of record and can 
be easily verified. In forming a just 
opinion of Judge Parker as a public man 
who seeks to become President of this 
great Republic, it will be necessary to 
call to your attention his political and 
judicial acts (to a small extent), who his 
political friends and managers are, and 
the motives that prompt them so far as 
we are able to judge. This will compel 
us to glance backward to the two Demo- 
cratic National Conventions previous to 
Judge Parker's nomination at St. Louis. 
We must estimate the value of his decla- 
rations, always keeping in mind He is 
the beneficiary, and therefore biased. I 
think you will find the chain of evidence 
linked together plainly, and the verdict 
I leave to you. ry A 

Copyrighted, 1904, by Oakley Selleck. ■"■ HE AUTHOR. 



A T the recent Democratic Na- 
/% tional Convention, held at St. 
/— % Louis, there was much confu- 
-*- JhL sion as to the issues that were to 
be presented through their platform. 
Nothing was absolutely known as to the 
views held by the principal candidate, 
Judge Alton B. Parker. It was known, 
however, that he had voted for the Free 
Coinage of Silver Dollars at the ratio of 
1 6 to i in the two previous campaigns 
and in the one of 1900 he contributed 
financially to the campaign fund. So 
far as the platform (which is the creed 
of the party) is concerned, it avoids 
mentioning gold and silver entirely. 
We know, however, that the Platform 
Committee were divided. Two-thirds 
of them were against the Gold Stand- 
ard and one-third, the Eastern element, 
was for it. So we see a two-thirds ma- 
jority in the Democratic party as repre- 
sented in its convention at St. Louis, are 
opposed to the Gold Standard and com- 
promised with the minority members by 
agreeing to say nothing about the stand- 
ard of money in the platform. 

John Sharp Williams, the Democratic 
leader in Congress, gives Almighty God 
the credit for upsetting the Democratic 
Party's Free Silver theories by supplying 



enough gold to meet the needs of the 
world. He should have added, that the 
Almighty took especial care to see to it 
that the Democratic Party was kept out 
of power until he, the Almighty, could 
supply the necessary gold. 

The Democratic Party in convention 
assembled at St. Louis said in a plank 
that was afterwards rejected that the 
enormous increase in the gold output 
of the world had settled the money issue 
and demonstrated their position as the 
correct one, that is, the need of a larger 
volume of metallic money. This state- 
ment appears plausible, sounds well, but 
it has one fatal defect, — It Is Not 
True ! What Judge Parker and the 
Democratic Party stood for and fought 
for in 1896 and again in 1900 was for 
a Depreciated Cheap Fifty-Cent 
Dollar, and not for more metallic 
money. They knew if they knew any- 
thing about the subject — which is ques- 
tionable — that the metallic money of the 
country would shrink instead of ex- 
pand the moment free coinage of silver 
at 16-to-i became a fact. Every gold 
dollar would disappear from circulation, 
as would also all the paper money in 
circulation that must be redeemed in 
gold, which amounts to several hundred 
millions. Such a contraction of the cur- 
rency would have produced the greatest 
panic this country ever saw. If Judge 



Parker and his party were honest and 
wanted more metallic money, why did 
they not propose to put ioo cents worth 
of silver in the silver dollar, which 
would have been about 32-to-i, but they 
proposed nothing of the sort! Such a 
law as the one they voted for would 
have cut in half the actual value (and 
buying power) of every dollar in Bank 
deposits, Insurance, and every obliga- 
tion payable in money, — unless those 
obligations were stipulated to be paid in 
gold. It was an attempt through Na- 
tional legislation to cheat creditors of 
fifty cents on the dollar. I wish to make 
an illustration : 

To-day we all know that it takes four 
pecks to make a bushel, and in any trans- 
action where bushels are the standard, 
we know exactly how much we are to 
give or receive. Let us suppose Con- 
gress should enact a law making two 
pecks a bushel — it would be a legal 
bushel, just as legal as one of four pecks. 
Let's suppose I had engaged to take 
10,000 bushels of wheat of you at a 
given time in the future and at $1.00 
per bushel. At the time of this trans- 
action the standard of quantity to the 
bushel was four pecks, _ remember. 
Imagine Congress passes this law mak- 
ing two pecks a legal bushel — this hap- 
pens between the time of our agreement 
and the time of delivery. Delivery time 



comes and you tender me 10,000 bushels 
under the new standard of two pecks to 
the bushel. Congress, by passing this 
imaginary law, gave you the opportunity 
to deliver to me one-half the amount of 
wheat I contracted for, but exactly the 
full number of bushels, by cutting the 
standard in half. This is merely given 
as an illustration, for if such a law had 
been enacted the courts would undoubt- 
edly have protected me in dealing with 
this commodity and I could have com- 
pelled the delivery of the four pecks to 
the bushel. But Not so with Money. 
Now we will put the shoe on the other 
foot. Imagine a Democratic President, 
the Free Silver 16-to-i Law in opera- 
tion, the time of delivery for this 10,000 
bushels of wheat arrives; you make the 
delivery and I pay you $10,000, BUT 
What Sort of Dollars ? The dollar, 
like the bushel, has shrunk, one in quan- 
tity, the other in value, one being the 
equivalent of the other. By legislative 
enactment 50 cents worth of silver has 
been placed in a coin and stamped One 
Dollar, and as the coinage being unlim- 
ited, they would instantly have driven 
all the hundred-cent Gold dollars and 
all the paper money that must be re- 
deemed in gold out of circulation and 
we are compelled to accept them in full 
settlement. No other dollars would be 
in circulation and the paper money not 



specified as redeemable in Gold would 
have exactly the purchasing power of 
the dollar that redeems it (Silver). 
This is what Alton B. Parker and the 
Democratic Party voted for and it is 
what the Republican Party voted 
against. Now honestly, which party 
was the sane and honest party? Don't 
be fooled for a moment in this matter. 
Judge Parker and his party may be 
scared so badly that he or they will not 
commit such a political crime, but they 
cannot be scared so badly they will not 
want to, if it's in them. 

Now for the candidate nominated by 
the Democratic Party for President, 
Judge Alton B. Parker. He is the Presi- 
dential timber selected principally, I un- 
derstand, because he was supposed to 
have no record of obliquity to live down. 
Not 10 per cent of the voters of his own 
state could have told who he was or 
what he was and probably not one per 
cent in the country at large before the 
present campaign was inaugurated. He 
was so little known. But since his nom- 
ination he has blossomed forth into the 
sunlight of publicity and we begin to 
learn something of him. Before he was 
nominated he wrapped himself ^ in the 
silence of judicial dignity. His lofty 
position as chief justice of the Court of 
Appeals forbade him to meddle with 
politics. / think we can find a totally 
6 



different reason for his silence. Because 
we now know that when Judge Parker 
was a County Judge he became the cam- 
paign manager of David B. Hill for 
Governor and William F. Sheehan for 
Lieutenant-Governor. He had no con- 
scientious scruples when wearing the 
ermine of judicial authority from enter- 
ing into active political work and David 
B. Hill and William F. Sheehan were 
elected and at once Judge Parker began 
to ascend Ambition's Ladder. David B. 
Hill appointed him a Judge of the Su- 
preme Court — a prompt reward for 
services rendered ! 

In the present instance, Judge Parker 
dared not open his month. No matter 
how entreated, it was absolutely essen- 
tial to his success to remain dumb — 
Why? The answer: — To have said 
"silver," the probabilities are he could 
have been nominated. But He Could 
Not Have Been Elected. To have 
said "gold," he could not have been 
nominated. And as Judge Parker was 
playing politics, he used his judicial 
ermine as a cloak to advance his own 
political fortunes. That's the way^ it 
appears to me. This, I think, explains 
Judge Parker's silence. 

Now who are his political associates 
and backers? First and foremost stands 
out the same David B. Hill, who is re- 
peatedly referred to in the public press 



as "a peanut politician." Just let me 
give you a line of political history. "In 
1 89 1 Isaac H. Maynard at Hill's com- 
mand stole the true election returns from 
the 15th Senate District of New York 
State and made the Legislature demo- 
cratic. Having constrained a Demo- 
cratic Governor to reward Maynard with 
a temporary appointment to the Court 
of Appeals, Hill resolved to make the 
reward permanent and nominated May- 
nard for the same place in 1893. The 
result is a landmark in the history of 
the State." The people, disgusted with 
Hill, Maynard and the gang, defeated 
Maynard by more than 100,000 votes 
and in 1894 they got a chance by their 
votes to tell Hill what they thought of 
him when he ran for Governor. He 
was defeated by an adverse majority of 
156,108 votes — this was the answer of 
the voters to David B. Hill! 

Now this same David B. Hill is the 
Political God-Father of Alton B. 
Parker. Judge Parker's rapid advance- 
ment on the Bench has been (largely) 
by appointment of David B. Hill, and 
Mr. Hill was head and front of the 
forces at St. Louis and worked with all 
his might to secure Judge Parker's 
nomination. 

Then there is another gentleman by 
the name of William F. Sheehan, for- 
merly of Buffalo, who was Lieutenant- 



Governor with Hill. He was connected 
with this Maynard incident. Let's read 
what the "New York Times" (a Parker 
organ) said of William F. Sheehan in 
1893: 

"A man who has shown himself so 
unconscionable a 'political blackleg' 
that any claim upon public confidence 
on his part hereafter can only excite 
derision." 
So much for William F. Sheehan ! 

Then there is also Senator Patrick 
McCarren of Brooklyn; he fought tooth 
and nail for his man and vouched for 
Judge Parker's availability, respectibility 
and unquestioned honesty. Who is Sen- 
ator McCarren — what is his business? 
I understand he is or was a cooper by 
trade. He's a ward politician I know; 
I also know he is a race-horse owner and 
a race-track gambler. I know that his 
partner was made deputy police commis- 
sioner for Brooklyn, and that he was 
compelled to resign or be removed by 
Charles F. Murphy, the leader of Tam- 
many Hall, through Commissioner Mc- 
Adoo, and the reasons given by Murphy 
and McAdoo were that McCarren's 
partner stood for graft. 

Judge Parker also has August Bel- 
mont, a plutocratic multi-millionaire 
banker, who handled the Cleveland Bond 
Deal which became almost a National 
Scandal. He is a Franchise Manipu- 



lator, and the head of our great street 
railway system; beside his other enter- 
prises, he is the Chairman of the 
State Racing Commission. Possibly 
you would like to know what sort of a 
thing the State Racing Commission is. 
Well, it's a commission that secured a 
monopoly of racing running horses in 
the State of New York, and the race- 
tracks under its control received from 
the public in 1903 $4,013,043.40 in 202 
racing days, and most of it went to the 
stockholders of the race-tracks and the 
race-track gamblers. 

These are the Big Four — the active 
workers and advisers and I presume per- 
sonal friends of Judge barker's. When 
we don't know much about a man and 
would like to, we try to discover who his 
associates are — Well, Here They 
Are. 

Judge Parker in 1896 and again in 
1900 voted for William Jennings Bryan 
and for what he represented, and con- 
tributed $2,500 to the Democratic Cam- 
paign Fund. If he believed then in 
Bryan's theories and that 50 cents' 
worth of silver stamped one dollar was 
the equal of a 100-cent gold dollar, what 
reasons have we to believe he has 
changed his mind? Oh, yes, I know he 
said so in his telegram, but he is not an 
unbiassed witness. If he had said the 
same thing before the Convention as- 



sembled, or in the words of a Demo- 
cratic senator (Tillman) : "Why the 
hell didn't he say so before he was nomi- 
nated?" — then we might believe he had 
recanted, but he waited until the Con- 
vention had nominated him, as the Con- 
vention had been led to believe by his 
representatives that he would stand on 
any platform that their wisdom might 
evolve. The Convention was in its last 
hours and anxious to adjourn; they were 
hunting around for a nominee for vice- 
president, — one of the common people, 
as the Democratic Party love to call 
them. About half the delegates had de- 
parted. Judge Parker had the Conven- 
tion in a hole and he knew it. He fur- 
thermore knew that to win he must get 
the support of the gold standard Demo- 
cratic voters of the State of New York 
and that he Absolutely Must Say 
Gold Right Out Loud in Meeting. 
He waited until the last moment when 
the Convention couldn't backwater and 
then — think of it — he bravely said 
" gold " out loud! We must remember 
he had been reared in the school of poli- 
tics by that past master of trickery, 
David B. Hill. 

Now, honestly, do you believe Judge 
Parker could have been nominated if 
the Convention had known before it 
nominated him the stand that he would 
take on this gold question? Remember, 



two-thirds of the platform committee re- 
fused flatfootedly to sanction the gold 
standard plank. I do not think that any 
well-informed, evenly-balanced man will 
believe that he could have received the 
nomination. If not, then he secured it 
by a trick, and to secure any valuable 
thing by trick or device is to be — what ? 
I leave you to fill in the term. 

The platform emits a strong odor of 
dislike for the Trusts, and has selected 
Judge Parker, an absolutely new, untried 
and unknown man to the country and 
Democratic voters at large, and a 
$40,000,000 member of the "common 
people" as the men to "bust 'em up!" 
These men stand for absolutely the re- 
verse of what the Democratic Party have 
been claiming to want for years past. 
Judge Parker's decisions are notoriously 
favorable to corporations, and I wish to 
say and proclaim it as loudly as possible 
that Alton B. Parker has had the oppor- 
tunity to destroy the meanest, most out- 
rageous and unconstitutional trust ever 
formed. It has been protected by him 
as against the People of the State of 
New York. No language can be used 
that is too strong to apply to this iniquity. 
I say again, Judge Parker has had the 
opportunity to drive it out of business 
and destroy it entirely. Remember, he 
was the Chief Justice of the Court of 
Appeals of the State of New York. 



Whenever a man makes a charge 
against another, no matter whether in 
the heat of a political campaign or not, 
he should be able to clearly prove his 
charge or confess himself a falsifier and 
make all the amends possible. I have 
made the charge that Judge Parker had 
an opportunity to crush and destroy the 
meanest monopoly, the most outrageous 
piece of class legislation, which is so 
baldly and flagrantly unconstitutional 
that a boy of twelve of average intelli- 
gence should be able to see it. 

Now here is the story — also the evi- 
dence. We have in the State of New 
York what is called the State Racing 
Commission. It is composed of a few 
rich men, who have secured from the 
State Legislature an absolute despotic 
monopoly of racing running horses in 
this State. If we wish to hold a race 
meeting we must apply to this State Rac- 
ing Commission; they are the fountain- 
head of authority and unlimited profit 
where we must go, and Judge Parker's 
friend and political backer, August Bel- 
mont, is Chairman of this Racing Com- 
mission. The State has handed over to 
him and a few other rich men, the great- 
est dividend paying monopoly among the 
Trust monsters, but this is only a starter. 
Racing running horses would not be a 
profitable game without the gambling 
privileges, so Mr. Belmont and his asso- 

13 



ciates determined to have them and they 
got them. The Constitution of the State 
of New York says on the subject of 
gambling: 

"Article I f Section g. Nor shall any 
lottery nor sale of lottery tickets, 
Pool Selling, Book-Making, or 
any other kind of gambling hereafter 
be authorized or allowed within this 
State, and the Legislature shall pass 
appropriate laws to prevent offenses 
against any of the provisions of this 
Section." 

This is perfectly plain. Anybody can 
understand it, it's not necessary to be a 
lawyer to grasp its meaning; It Pro- 
hibits Book-Making and Pool Sell- 
ing Anywhere in the State of New 
York; it does not say that under certain 
conditions, or that certain men may, or 
inside a board fence surrounding a race- 
track — it forbids it absolutely, unquali- 
fiedly and in the most flat-footed 
manner. 

Well, Messrs. Belmont and his sporty 
crowd received from the State Legisla- 
ture, composed of Republicans and 
Democrats alike, and signed by a Re- 
publican Governor (Levi P. Morton), a 
gift of the gambling privileges and made 
them exclusively theirs. Governor Mor- 
ton said his reason for signing the bill 
was that it seemed impossible to prevent 
book-making and pool-selling, and pos- 

14 



sibly its evil effects might be minimized 
by confining it to the race-tracks. Gov- 
ernor Morton cannot be charged truth- 
fully with any personal motive, as he is 
not an owner of race-horses nor an asso- 
ciate, either political or social, of race- 
track gamblers. 

Messrs. Belmont and associates knew 
the opportunities as a money maker that 
lay in this law, for it made it a Felony 
to sell pools anywhere in New York State 
outside a race-track fence controlled by 
him, but no penalty is attached to selling 
pools inside his fence. If you or I should 
attempt to sell pools on horse-races any- 
where else in this State outside of his 
fence, or a fence surrounding some of the 
race-tracks controlled by him as Chair- 
man of the Racing Committee, we are 
liable to go to State Prison as felons if 
we are caught at it. How is This for 
Killing Off Business Rivals? Now 
here is where their graft comes in. To 
sell pools at the race-track each pool 
seller of the first class must purchase 
each day fifty $2 tickets, which means 
One Hundred Dollars. This goes to the 
Racing Association, and for this he is 
permitted to sell pools in a building 
erected near the Grand Stand and for 
the express purpose of gambling. The 
number of pool sellers varies^ but 
the rake-off to the Racing Association 
amounts to from Ten to Twenty Thou- 



sand Dollars for each afternoon's racing. 
How is this for a monopoly of a good 
thing? 

We are all familiar with the charge 
that the city pool-rooms pay the police 
for the privilege of disobeying the law. 
We call this graft, and it is the irony 
of fate that makes the police act as a 
whipper-in, as it were, closing up the^ 
poolrooms and losing their graft merely 
to have the money go to the race-track 
owners. Now where do we, the public 
who pay the taxes, come in? We pay 
about $10,000,000 per year to support 
a police force and District Attorney's of- 
fice, and the Belmont crowd use them 
most of their time to hunt down outside 
competitors in their gambling game. 
Did you ever see anything slicker? Talk 
about the Oil Trust, the Meat Trust, and 
all the other so-called trusts — they're not 
in it for a minute with Belmont and his 
bunch of grafters. You see it amounts 
to the tidy little sum of over Four Mil- 
lion Dollars in 202 racing days and 
Nobody Can Play the Game But 
Them! 

From the foregoing statements the 
reader has a pretty fair idea of this 
gambling game and how it's manipu- 
lated. Now, let's follow the case of the 
People of the State of New York against 
Leon Staedeker and Samuel Staedeker, 
arrested for keeping and operating a 



pool-room in New York City. They 
were tried and convicted and their case 
carried to the Court of Appeals where 
we will now take their case. 

It was argued by John R. Dos Passos 
and Benjamin Steinhardt, and before 
Judge Alton B. Parker. Every consti- 
tutional phase of it was argued. I quote 
herewith a few passages : 

"It is class legislation, it creates a 
class of persons who enjoy the immu- 
nities of the racetrack; then, second, 
it singles out another class of persons 
whom it severely punishes for the 



same acts." 



"The bookmakers here ply their 
occupation with impunity by paying 
royal license fees." 

"In our Democracy the leading 
fundamental principle of government 
is Equality. No man or class is 
the law either in rights, duties, reme- 
dies or punishments. We have all the 
same rights, the same duties, the same 
remedies for the invasion of rights 
and the same punishment is inflicted 
for the same offenses." 

"The distinctive and characteristic 
feature of the American system is 
Equality Before the Law. Our 
government was the first in the his- 
tory of the world instituted upon the 
basis of civic equality and equal laws." 
President Benjamin Harrison returned 



to the United States Senate a bill, passed 
by that body, with a communication 
worded as follows : 

"To the Senate: I return With- 
out my approval the bill (S. 3830) 
to prohibit book-making of any kind 
and pool-selling in the District of Col- 
umbia for the purpose of gaming. 
My objection to the bill is that it 
does not prohibit book-making and 
pool-selling, but, on the contrary, es- 
pecially saves from the operations 
of its prohibitions and penalties the 
Washington Jockey Club Racetracks, 
no less than one mile in length, 
etc. If this form of gambling is to be 
prohibited, as I think it should be, the 
penalty should include All Persons 
and All Places. 

"Benjamin Harrison. 
"Executive Mansion, 
"Oct. 1st, 1900." 
In New York State we have, as I have 
quoted, a constitutional prohibition with- 
out the slightest qualification, forbidding 
all forms of gambling. Judge Parker 
must know of its flagrant violation, 
which is as common talk almost as to say 
Good-morning. 

I wish to make one farther quotation. 
Mr. Justice Field, at the United States 
Supreme Court, says: 

"We cannot shut our eyes to mat- 
ters of public notoriety and general 
18 



cognizance when we take our seats on 
the Bench. We are not struck with 
blindness and forbidden to know as 
judges what we see as men." 
Every phase of this constitutional 
question was argued before Judge 
Parker, and when he handed down his 
decision he avoided the matter entirely; 
he dismissed the indictment and convic- 
tion of the Staedekers upon a Flaw in 
the indictment. No argument, no ap- 
peal for a constitutional decision availed, 
Judge Parker was Dumb. If he wished 
to invoke the trickery of the law, he was 
within his judicial privilege in avoiding 
such a decision; as the indictment was 
undoubtedly faulty Judge Parker was 
within his right in choosing to select a 
faulty indictment to pass upon instead of 
the constitutionality of the law and / do 
not base my argument upon that ground, 
but upon the broad ground that he, as 
a patriotic, broad-minded judge had a 
duty to perform, and that duty was to 
declare All Men Are Equal Before 
the Law, and wipe from the statute 
book one of the most disgraceful laws 
ever enacted by civilized people. For it 
Created a Class of Preferred Citi- 
zens, which is unquestionably unconsti- 
tutional. It was his duty to see to it that 
exact equality before the law should be 
maintained among all the citizens of 
this State. We look to him, he was our 

19 



Chief Justice, our highest judicial au- 
thority. 

Legislatures frequently pass laws that 
are subject to question and if they de- 
viate from the constitutional prohibitions 
our courts set them aside, but here is a 
flagrant case where Judge Parker re- 
fused to do so. If we ask why he did 
not, we must look for a motive, and the 
only one in sight and the one that pos- 
sesses strong probability is the fact that 
his personal and political associates are 
among the gamblers who profit by this 
game. 

Probably such a decision would not 
have stopped horse-racing in this State, 
but it would have deprived his friends 
of an enormously profitable monopoly, 
for it must be remembered that in 1903 
its receipts were over $4,000,000 in 202 
racing days. The inception of the law 
is criminal and utterly foreign to our 
principles of government. Alton B. 
Parker could have removed the stain of 
this class legislation, gambling monopoly 
and prison-breeding iniquity from this 
State. Why did he avoid doing so? 
There is one answer and a logical one— 
to have done his duty was to strike his 
friends and political workers a body- 
blow in their most sensitive spot — their 
pocket-books. If he had done so, would 
they have worked for his nomination 
for President ? Would August Belmont, 



Chairman of the State Racing Commis- 
sion, and head of this gambling trust, 
race-track and race-horse owner, have 
worked for Alton B. Parker's nomina- 
tion? Would Senator Patrick McCar- 
ren, race-horse owner and race-track 
gambler, have been favorable? Does 
anybody credit David B. Hill, the "pea- 
nut politician," with high or lofty mo- 
tives ? And whoever heard a word about 
William F. Sheehan except as he has 
been called in the public press "an un- 
conscionable political blackleg" and 
"manipulator in ward politics in Buf- 
falo," who was in the game for what 
there was to be gotten out of it ! These 
were Judge Parker's close friends and 
advisers before and during the time of 
his nomination and to whom he is in- 
debted for said nomination and, if 
elected, these are the men to whom he is 
indebted. How would he pay the debt? 
As a side-light on Judge Parker's lean- 
ings and inclinations as between corpora- 
tions and private individuals, it may be 
interesting to note the case of Miss Abi- 
gail Roberson, of Rochester, N. Y. 
Miss Roberson I understand to be a 
young woman of exceptional beauty ; her 
good looks attracted the attention of a 
rich milling concern, who secured a 
photograph of her and used it for adver- 
tising purposes without her consent. She 
protested and brought suit, and procured 



a judgment. This rich corporation car- 
ried the case to a higher court — the Ap- 
pellate division — and again Miss Rober- 
son received the unanimous verdict of 
all the judges in her favor. Again this 
corporation carried the case to a still 
higher court, the Court of Appeals, and 
Judge Alton B. Parker wrote the opinion 
Denying any rights to Miss Roberson 
as against this rich corporation. Please 
remember every judge in the courts be- 
low Judge Parker and some of his asso- 
ciates in the Court of Appeals recognized 
Miss Roberson's absolute right to pri- 
vacy in her own personality and that no 
corporation could use it without her con- 
sent. But Judge Parker has said to the 
contrary. This may apply to any family, 
no matter how privately they live. If 
there be a member of the family that is 
of exceptional beauty any concern may 
get a snapshot photograph and publish 
it on any old thing and no redress, so 
says Judge Parker. Your pocket-book 
and its contents are yours, but not the 
privacy of your home. Judge Alton B. 
Parker has said so and he is the candi- 
date of the Democratic party for Presi- 
dent. He is to protect the rights of the 
people against rich and grasping cor- 
porations ! Thus serious affairs become 
farcical. Since this decision of Judge 
Parker our legislature has passed a 
stringent law protecting our personal 



..otC. 



rights which no judge can dodge or 
evade, no matter how favorably he may 
be inclined toward rich corporations. 

Judge Parker has another corporation 
lawyer who is Vice-Chairman of the Na- 
tional Executive Committee that is di- 
recting his campaign, Mr. De Lancy 
Nicoll. Mr. Nicoll is the attorney for 
the Metropolitan Turf Association. 
This Association is composed exclusively 
of the book-makers and pool-sellers who 
operate at the race-tracks and pay $100 
per day Graft to the race-track owners 
for the privilege of gambling. These 
book-makers sometimes get into litiga- 
tion; people try to recover their lost 
money and bring suit, and a powerful 
lawyer at court and in their pay is a good 
business precaution. Mr. Nicoll will be 
found working strenuously for Judge 
Parker. 

Let's enumerate them. There is Judge 
Alton B. Parker, who got his nomination 
in a very questionable manner. There is 
David B. Hill, "the peanut politician"; 
William F. Sheehan, "a political black- 
leg" ; August Belmont, Chairman of the 
State Racing Commission and member 
of the Executive Committee for Judge 
Parker, and the real power behind the 
throne; Patrick McCarren, race-horse 
owner and race-track gambler, Chairman 
of the State Executive Committee; De 
Lancy Nicoll, Vice-Chairman of the Na- 

23 ... 



tional Committee and attorney for the 
book-makers who sell pools at the race- 
tracks, all working for the election of 
Alton B. Parker to the presidency of this 
great country. These are the principals 
in this undertaking; they are the men 
who have managed and manipulated 
him, — Why? Alton B. Parker was 
Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals, 
he was the man who could have spoiled 
their Graft but didn't. Now, honestly, 
do we find anything worthy of respectful 
consideration among this assortment of 
statesmen? Against this combination 
stands out bold and clear, Theodore 
Roosevelt — an American man, who 
from his youth has been in the public 
eye, a writer of ability, a member of the 
New York Assembly, member of the 
Civil Service Commission, New York 
Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary 
of the Navy, resigned to command a 
regiment at the front, returned and was 
elected Governor of New York State, 
elected Vice-President, and, through th« 
shocking death of President McKinley, 
he became President. 

In every phase of his public life 
Theodore Roosevelt has been a 
credit to the country he represents. His 
associates are among the nation's most 
distinguished and gifted men — What a 
Contrast! The verdict is with us — 
The Voters. 



2S353SEFK 



1804 



111 mil mil in III mil mil ||, mil mil mi mi 

013 789 009 4 f 



Hollinger 



